Mum's the word on 'Grey's Anatomy'

If you bump into Kate Burton after watching "Grey's Anatomy" tonight, don't tell her what happens. The actress, who plays mom to Everett's Ellen Pompeo on the ABC show, doesn't have TiVo while in town starring in "The Cherry Orchard" at the Huntington. "There are some big surprises. I can tell you that this is the one episode where you will see more of [me] than you've ever seen before," Burton told us. "But we really don't know where it goes. They don't tell us, so we won't tell all of you." In her downtime, the daughter of Richard Burton and Sybil Williams said she's been flying back and forth to LA to see her husband, former Williamstown Theatre Festival producer Michael Ritchie.

Memo to Biden: Silence can be golden

If Boston-based flack Larry Rasky really wants to help Joe Biden get elected, he might consider a muzzle. Rasky, who's repping the presidential wannabe, can't be happy with the Delaware senator's comments to the New York Observer. In an interview published yesterday, Biden called Barack Obama "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." Clean? Busted for plagiarizing a speech by former British Labor leader Neil Kinnock the last time he ran for president, Biden's showing a tendency to go off-script this time . In July, gabbing about Delaware's growing Indian population, he said, "You cannot go into a 7-11 or a Dunkin ' Donuts without an Indian accent." We tried to reach Rasky yesterday, but he was busy. Biden, who yesterday filed the papers to get into the presidential race, issued a statement saying he meant no disrespect to Obama.

MFA keeping close eye on their Pollocks

Harvard's art experts aren't the only ones getting their hands on Alex Matter's problematic Jackson Pollocks. Word is the wonks at the Museum of Fine Arts will do a "scientific study" of four other Pollock paintings and publish the results in time for the September opening of "Pollock Matters," a show at Boston College's McMullen Museum of Art. Earlier this week, Harvard released the results of a study that raised questions about the authenticity of three of the Pollock paintings found in 2002 by Matter, a New York filmmaker. The Harvard study found pigments and materials that were only available after the abstract artist's death in 1956.

‘The Departed’ coming back for more

The Hollywood Reporter is confirming what William Monahan, Oscar-nominated screenwriter of "The Departed," already told the Globe: There's a sequel in the making to Martin Scorsese's Boston-based crime drama. Tentatively called "Take That," the film would feature the foul-mouthed cop played by Mark Wahlberg, and introduce a character played by Scorsese's favorite actor, Robert De Niro.\

For a former World No. 1, Jim Courier's pretty cool. The onetime tennis titan doesn't bore you with tedious tales of his on-court exploits. He'd much rather talk about tunes. "Life is long, and I want to take it all in," says Courier, who was in town yesterday to hype the second annual Champions Cup Boston. "I'm happier talking about R.E.M. than about tennis or training." Before playing table tennis with Tenacity students yesterday, Courier crowed a bit about persuading Pete Sampras to play the Boston tournament. (The Outback Champions Series tour stops at Agganis Arena May 2-6.) "Pete's a tennis player. That's what he's singularly suited to do," said Courier. "Boston tennis fans will eat him up." . . . New York Governor Eliot Spitzer had a tantrum this week during which he quoted James Taylor. The New York Post reported yesterday that while berating a lawmaker, Spitzer seethed: "I am a [expletive] steamroller, and I'll roll over you." Taylor, who sang at Spitzer's inauguration, wrote a tune called "Steamroller" in which he sings: "I'm a steamroller, baby, I'm bound to roll all over you."

A couple of the cops from "Reno 911!: Miami" were in Boston yesterday promoting the film based on the Comedy Central series. Actors Carlos Alazraqui and Cedric Yarbrough, a.k.a. deputies James Garcia and S. Jones, looked official as they greeted fans at the Fenway AMC theater. The sold-out screening was set up through MySpace.

Geoff Edgers of the Globe staff contributed to this column. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.